The Skaianet Conspiracy (Phase 2)
by ClubsxDeuce
Summary: Dystopian Sci-fi AU. A young man sits in a virtual reality apparatus. Though it was 16 years ago he was given life, it was only 20 days ago he was given a name. A history. And four years worth of memories. Of a game to end and create the universe. Pose as a team, because the world is real. - Spy Games, Intrigue, Various ships, kinda Humanstuck. Mature content warning.
1. John: Wake Up

**Author's Note**

**Hello, new and returning readers. Returning readers can skip down to the next paragraph, but to the new readers, this is a direct sequel my previous fan fic, _The Skaianet Experiment. _You don't really need the read it to follow this one, but you may want to give it a glance over. You can find it from my profile.**

**Due to a change in certain ideas I had with the direction of the plot, I need to make a few adjustments to things established in _The Skaianet Experiment._**

- The 16 "Subjects" were originally Age 13 when the experiment began. From here out, consider all of them being in the 16 – 18 range so their physical/mental ages line up.

- Originally, the experiment took place in 2015. Uh... make that 2030. Which will also be the year this one takes place.

**And lastly, I'm planning to shoot for shorter, more frequent updates. So with that, let's pick up where we left off...**

* * *

A young man sits in a virtual reality apparatus. Though it was 16 years ago he was given life, it was only 20 days ago he was given a name. A history. And four years worth of memories. Of a game to end and create the universe.

Lord English was vanquished. Humans and trolls alike stepped forward to claim the ultimate reward. To create and enter their new world. Or so the believed. The ultimate reward was not a new universe. It was the answer. To the ultimate riddle. One truth.

**_Pose as a team. The world is real._**

And the truth had set them free. In mere moments, the curious "Andrew" had implanted knowledge into their minds. Of the nature of their world and their lives. And with that truth, also a mission, should they choose to accept it. But that would come later. First, he had to get out.

He reached up and pushed the twin release buttons inside the capsule, causing it to open on hydraulics with a hiss. He pulled the mask from his mouth, the unpleasant taste of liquified nutrients lingering in his mouth. The air that entered his lungs was stale and dry, but also cold. And he felt no link with it, as he typically did as the Heir of Breath. As feeling began to return to the rest of his body, a thought occurred to him. If he was attached to an intake for nutrients... AGH. John hastily freed himself from the waste system also attached to him. He sat up, finding himself in a thin blue hospital gown, his bare feet touching a cold linoleum floor. As his eyes and ears took in "real" input for the first time in weeks, he witnessed the other pods in the room around him, opened or opening in a similar manner to his own awakening. Figures were emerging. Some faces were familiar. Others, he'd been informed, would look rather different.

In "creating" them, Andrew had not made drastic changes to their appearances, merely painted personalities onto the bodies he'd been given to work with. This was at least the case with the eight human kids. The twelve trolls had obviously had their skin tinted, with the addition of horns and possibly unknowable alien appendages, but their face and body structures had been retained. The remaining six were completely unrecognizable to him... they were clearly full-grown adults: a pair of slim men with short red hair who looked like twins. An older man with wild eyes and wilder grey hair. Three women with a variety of hair colors.

"JOHN?" He heard a mildly frightened voice from behind him. He turned to observe a boy his own age in the capsule immediately behind him. Though his skin was pale, his hair snow white and his hairline missing it's distinct nubby horns, John recognized him.

"karkat?" John blinked in surprise. Karkat hels his hands out in front of him, staring at his skin tone with disbelief.

"WHAT DID THEY DO TO ME?" He cried out as his hands wandered up to his skull, grasping air where his horns would be. "THE FUCK DID THEY DO TO ME?!"

"It is your mind they've meddle with, not your body." Both John and Karkat looked at the source of the voice. Standing off to the side, a woman with perfectly straight, waist length black hair. Unlike everyone else in the room, she was dressed properly, with dark jeans and a black turtleneck sweater.

"WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?!" Karkat demanded of the woman loudly, drawing the attention of the rest of the room, breaking the stupor of their transformations.

"You once knew me as the Black Queen." The woman told him. "And while you were the orchestrator of my exile, that is of no concern now." She opened up one of several boxes on the table next to her. Inside were beige jumpsuits. "I was sent ahead. To make ready. I can answer your questions... but only after we escape this place." She told the room. "Everyone get dressed." She ordered.

* * *

That night, Snowman led the 26 newly freed subjects from the lab. Arson and sabotage, meticulously orchestrated and timed, concealed their exodus. Skaianet would learn in the coming days of these events. Of the criminals and spies paid off to carry out these distractions. How AH-4 had orchestrated their escape, before deleting himself and taking half the facility with him. Though they would seek them, caution and planning had since spread the Children of Sburb to the winds. Waiting.

It has been three months since that day.

** John: Deliver.**


	2. John: Deliver

** John: Deliver.**

*knock knock*

"Who's there?"

"Pizza delivery!" John shouted through the door. His right hand held a large insulated bag. He checked his watch on his left. 3 minutes ahead, good. The door was answered by a young man who appeared slightly older than John, but who's carefree look reflected a much different life than John had had. As John cordially completed the transaction, he saw three other young men climb out of a row of four machines; large chairs with monitors attached to a swing-down arm that surrounded the user completely when pulled down. John recognized them as "immersion rigs", high end gaming systems that were quite a rare sight. They took the pizzas. He got the money. And no tip. Lousy rich kids. He headed for the elevator and made his way down to the ground floor, and stepped out of the apartment building and onto the streets of New York City.

New York City, 2030 AD.

At the edge of the street, John sat down on his motorcycle... ok, that's a lie. It was an electric bike. Truthfully, the thing was a damn moped. But that's all he could afford at the moment. He checked his delivery itinerary on the tablet screen embedded into the controls. One more stop, then back to work to punch out. And he was still a few minutes ahead of schedule. No sweat. He opened up the heated box bolted to the back to confirm the cargo was still intact. It was. As he closed the lid, he looked up to see someone bolting down the sidewalk towards him, pushing passersby out of the way as she ran. She had long black hair with extreme volume, and was wearing black pants, a black Spiderman T-shirt, a cobalt jacket, orange scarf and round glasses.

"John, start the 8ike!" She shouted at him. It was then he noticed a pack of four upset looking men chasing her.

"oh shit!" John jumped on the moped and started it, but remained standing rather than sitting down. Behind him, Vriska vaulted over the heating box and onto the seat before gripping both sides of him.

"GO!" The moped lurched forward as John maneuvered the vehicle skillfully, putting three lanes of traffic between them and Vriska's pursuers. He felt her breath a sigh of relief.

"so what did you do this time, Vris?" John asked loudly to talk over the traffic around them. Vriska leaned forward closer to his ear to speak in a quieter tone.

"Nothin." She told him. "Nothing out of the ordinary anyway. One of the 8astards figured out the trick to my 8-card-monte and riled up the crowd."

"y'know this is gonna backfire on you sometime, right?" John asked her. "what if I hadn't been around?"

"I would have worked something out."

"you need a safer line of work. Vinnie's is looking for a new waitress." John suggested his own workplace hopefully.

"8luh, fuck no." Vriska declined with disgust.

When all the victims of the Skaianet experiment escaped captivity, their group had been split into several "cells", as Scratch had called them. Subject 18, as Skaianet called him, had clearly been given very elaborate directions by AH-4 before being sprung early. In the three weeks between his escape and their's, he'd faked his death, hacked databases, forged identities, orchestrated their escape and made all the arrangements for them to go into plain sight-hiding in cities across the country. All without every showing his face to any of them; doing all of his correspondence digitally. After arriving in the various cities, they'd been told to await further instructions. And that was the last they had heard from him or Snowman. And that was three months ago.

Though Scratch had arranged housing and start up money, the members of the New York group had all found some form of job to fill the time and earn some spending money. John delivered pizzas. Vriska had found a talent for suckering tourists at games of chance and slight of hand. Their income, and everyone elses, went into sustaining themselves and the four bedroom apartment that Scratch had secured, with a generous down payment to ensure no questions asked. None of them knew where Scratch was getting his income from, but they were all pretty sure he wasn't working for it like they were.

Vriska waited with the scooter while John popped into another building and made the last delivery.

"so you want a ride home?" John asked.

"Nah, I got something else to do first. I'll gra8 the su8way." She told him. "Thanks for the lift." She said, before leaning in and kissing him on the lips, leaving John blushing. Two months into dating, and he still wasn't quite used to that.

The discovery of the "true nature" of Sburb, and thus themselves, had impacted them all differently. Some had existential crises of their identity, having not only been thrust into a very different world, but some of them becoming a different species entirely. There was also the realization, that AH-4's "characters", none of them had really been in control of their own actions whilst inside the simulation, a fact that had taken a huge burden off the minds of some of the players. Vriska especially benefited: everyone she'd ever killed was either alive as a human now or never existed at all. The guilt that she'd confided in John during their conversations was lifted and he'd seen her take to the human life very well. However, aside from the 28 subjects, no one else any of them had known ever existed either. Jade's grandpa. Becquerel. Dave's brother. Rose's mom. Their sprites. Their consorts. His dad. John shook his head to dislodge that thought before it pitched a tent on his brain and ruined his night. Lastly, there was the fact that, though none of them had a clue about it, they had all been completely different people before being experimented on. People with lives and histories and families that WERE real. There was a nagging sense that none of them were real. How do you tell what's real when some computer can overwrite your whole life without you knowing the difference? Scratch had warned them against inquiring down that path. Finding out who they once were would be nothing but painful. But John couldn't help but think about it.

Back at Vinnie's Pizza, John dropped off the delivery payments and punched out, passing the dinner shift delivery crew as they made their way in. Twenty minutes later, he was back in front of the building housing their apartment. Instead of going directly inside, he stopped and sat on the scooter for a few minutes, staring at one particular skyscraper about two blocks away. The gleaming tower of glass and ivory stone. Skaianet's corporate headquarters. At the foot of the tower, starting from the second floor and covering it up to the fifth, was one of the massive electronic billboards, much like those in Times Square. It cycled advertisements and news on Skaianet's products, and in the last week one particular product had entered the rotation.

**_Reality Anchor_**

The new model was nothing like the massive, life-support enabled pods used to imprison them back in the silicon valley facility. Shrunk down to a simple, full headed helmet, the first "true virtual reality" device for the consumer market. It was the most hyped and hotly anticipated tech in years, especially after Skaianet had pioneered true VR years ago for government and military use. Promises of games and social media apps, virtual tourism and anything else the marketplace could conceive of had made it the top of the world's Christmas list. John would have been ecstatic for such a thing too... if he didn't know better. What Skaianet had done to them didn't have anything to do with any of what they were advertising. Something was very off the level, as they all knew first hand. They weren't sure what, only that the end result would be very bad. And it was coming out in four months. Four months to find a way to stop them. Then the genie was out of the bottle, and whatever plan Skaianet had would have too much momentum to stop.

John's phone beeped, indicating a next text message.

"Everyone get back here ASAP. Scratch just called a confrence call."

Jade

** Rose: Compose.**


	3. Rose: Compose

Rose lay back on the couch in the common room of the New York cell's apartment, contemplating her writing. On the coffee table next to the couch, a well worn and densely packed notebook sat open. In her lap, a small laptop computer. On that computer, a verbose word document she had been working on sporadically for the last three months, ever since their arrival. Their "life" story in book form. Too fantastical to ever pass as a true story. But she was sure a great work of fiction could be synthesized from it, given a little creative embellishment. At present, she was working on recalling conversations between her and Kanaya during the first session. But keeping the chronology straight after all these years was giving her a headache. And writer's block.

Also in the common room with her were two of the ex-trolls. Kanaya sat at the kitchen table, which was currently covered in red cloth, with a couple of sewing pins gripped between her teeth as she consulted a design sketch before making precise cuts to the fabric. She work a black long sleeve shirt and tan pants, but aside from the skin tone and horns looked very much like her old self. Karkat, who had taken significant effort to look more like his old self by dying his hair back to black, sat in a reclining chair in front of the television. He'd forgone the cancer-emblem shirt for a variety of tees with witty, expletive ridden phrases. On the TV, re-runs of "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Aire" on TV Land. Apparently, though human and troll Will Smith possessed similar personalities, the plots of the shows were wildly different, much to Karkat's chagrin. His complaints about the superiority of the troll version were a familiar distraction Rose had learned to tune out.

One of the bedroom doors opened and the rattling of plastic wheels drew Rose's attention. A black office chair rolled towards her with it's back towards her, but ground to a halt between Karkat and the television.

"Hi Karkat." The tan girl with long black hair swiveled in the chair to face him. "Whatcha doing?" Atop her head, white dog ears twitched playfully as she spoke.

"DAMN IT HARLEY." Karkat rolled his eyes. "WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?"

"The fuck is what?" She said innocently. In response, Karkat reached up, grabbed one of the ears, and pulled. Both the ears, as well as the hairband they were attached to, lifted off her head before he hasitly swatted his hand away and resettled them in place.

"Stop that!" She complained.

"LOOK, I GET IT. WE ALL MISS HOW WE USED TO LOOK." Karkat groaned. "BUT YOU DON'T SEE US RUNNING AROUND WEARING FAKE HORNS AND FACE PAINT ALL THE TIME!"

"Well, I don't wear them in public..." She defended. Sensors in the headband picked up small ticks in her inflection and biometrics, causing the ears to constantly match her outward emotions.

"YOU GO OUT IN PUBLIC?" Karkat fired back sarcastically. "NEWS TO FUCKING ME!"

"Says the grouchy pants who sits here and watches forty year old TV all day." She snarked back.

"Can you two lay off it for a bit?" Rose interrupted. "I'm nursing a migraine here." Jade shrugged and rolled her chair further across the room, while Karkat unpaused the TV.

"How's it going?" She asked her.

"Not so hot. I'm stuck on figuring out the order of the conversations. I've got the order for both of us..." She gestured at Kanaya, "but I can't figure out how to present it to the reader so that the time shenanigans make sense."

"Well, why not skip it and comeback later?"

"Your solution to my problem with non-linearity is more non-linearity?"

"I CAN'T FATHOM WHY YOU'RE WRITING ABOUT IT IN THE FIRST PLACE. WHAT'S THE POINT?"

"I like to write. It fills the time."

"IT. FILLS. THE TIME." Karkat crossed his arms. "MONTH'S NOW WE'VE BEEN STUCK HERE 'FILLING TIME'." He stood up and faced them. "WHEN WE SHOULD HAVE BEEN OUT THERE STICKING IT TO THOSE SKAIANET BASTARDS!" He pointed in the general direction of the city block housing their HQ.

"How?" Jade calmly stopped him. This was an argument that had happened before. "No powers, no resources, no weapons worth a damn and not even a plan!"

"AND WHOSE FAULT IS THAT?"

"No ones!"

"I believe Mr. Vantas is addressing a grievance with me." A distorted voice came from the television. Everyone looked at the screen. The show had been replaced by a black screen lit only by a white, calligraphic "S". This was how Scratch had contacted them during their brief time together after their escape, hacking a nearby electrical device, a feat that was surprisingly possible in the future decade they found themselves.

"HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN LISTENING YOU SICK FUCK?" Karkat demanded.

"Mr. Vantas, let me assure you... I'm always listening." There was an ominous pause. "Assemble everyone. We will be having a strategy meeting at 8 PM local time."

"NOW LISTEN HERE YOU WHITE TEXT DOUCHE-" The monitor turned off and Karkat threw the remote down with disgust.

"I'll text John and Vriska..." Jade told Rose as she pulled her phone from her pocket. "You get the others?"

"Sure." Rose answered, opening her chat client on the laptop. Scratch, her one-time mentor, still perturbed her quite a bit. Though he had turned out to be an indirect adversary during the session, that was still just a role in the story the AI had constructed for them. She still wasn't sure how much he ought to be trusted, although they didn't have many other options for now. Still, she and everyone else who'd directly interacted with him were wary.

That last comment about "always listening"... she wondered if it was truth or merely his melodramatic tendencies. Sheguessed Kanaya had the same thought, as an intense blush on her face had appeared and quickly faded at the mention. She'd ask later. After messaging the final two members of the cell, Rose closed the laptop and began reading through her notebook again. Maybe she would take Jade's advice and skip ahead. Things were much more interesting once she and Kanaya had met.

** Dave: Be the Producer.**


	4. Dave: Be the Producer

**Dave: Be the Producer.**

"C'mon and admit it, this script is gold."

"I admit, I like it." The older gentleman said. "But you've got no name talent attached, no previous, and you're 18. This won't get made even if I vouch for it." He paused, considering the bundle of paper in his hand. "In fact, I'd probably get sacked for even trying."

"Fine, then I'll go make my own production company. With blackjack. And hookers. Actually, forget the production company."

"Mr. Strider..."

"That was a joke. I know you Hollywood types aren't big on subtle irony."

"Mr. Stri-"

"I could'a been a contender!"

"M..."

"This town deserves a better class of filmmaker, and I'm gonna give it one."

"ANY OTHER MOVIES YOU WANT TO QUOTE AT ME DAVID?" The man grew impatient with the young upstart who's somehow gotten a script past his slush pile despite his age. Dave gave the man a deadpan look, before removing his shades and staring the man coldly in the eyes. He gave a dramatic pause.

"Yippie Kay Yay Mutherfucka."

"Get out."

* * *

"So I take it that went well?" Dirk questioned Dave after seeing him get thrown out of the entrance by security.

"Nah, guy wouldn't no comedy if it smacked him upside the head like puppet dong."

"That's an oddly specific metaphor."

"The other version of you was kinda fucked up honestly. I don't really wanna go into it right now." Dave sat down on the bench next to his sort-of-brother.

"So what's the plan then?" Dirk asked while staring at his phone.

"We do it ourselves." Dave waved the script in his hand.

"Well, we'll debate the logical fallacy of that statement later." Dirk handed him the phone. "Scratch just scheduled a conference call." Dave read over the terse message, which Dirk had summed up.

"And it's about damn time!" Dave grinned. "Thought we'd never get started." The two of them stood up, as Dave stepped towards the street and raised his hand. "YO TAXI!" It's didn't take long to catch one in this part of LA.

Los Angeles, 2030 AD

* * *

About an hour later, the Strider brothers arrived back at the small two story house Scratch had acquired as living quarters and base of operations for the Los Angeles cell. As they stepped in the front door, to their immediate right sat a tall and thin young man with short brown hair and bi-colored glasses, currently absorbed in the dual monitor screens of his computer terminal. Also in the room, four individuals sitting on the couch in front of the television monitor, playing Smash Brothers on a very-retro-for-2030 Gamecube.

"Hi Dav—E, Hi Dirk." One of the girls in the group adressed them cheerfully. She wasn't holding a controller anymore or paying much attention to the screen, a quick glance informing them that Feferi was already knocked out of the match. As he glanced at the screen, Mewtwo was knocked off the top of the screen by a well placed Up-B from Luigi, taking his last life.

"wwhat the fuck wwas that?!" The young man sitting next to Feferi demanded at the other girl.

"It hits farther from the right angle..." Aradia rolled her eyes, before focusing on the last remaining opponent, the much older man to her left who controlled Ness on the screen. As Dirk wandered towards the kitchen, from which the smell of popcorn and the sound of Jake English's off key singing emanated, Dave watched the final round. Aradia lost. No one could beat The Mayor at games. He is simply the best there is.

"You get the conference call message?" Sollux called out to Dave from the computer.

"Yeah."

"Chiicago is already on iif you want to say hii." He gestured at the computer. Dave stepped to Sollux's side in front of the webcam. On the screen was a four paned window, with each pane displaying a video feed. The lower right displayed Dave and Sollux, with the small letters "L.A." In the lower left window, labeled "C.H." sat a girl with brown hair that partially covered her eyes. Unlike Sollux, she was forgoing her signature eye-wear, but was instantly recognizable from her cheshire cat grin.

"OMG, SOLLUX, 1S TH4T D4V3?"

"Sup TZ. How are things out there?"

"UGH, NOT SO HOT." She sighed. "1 M34N, J4N3 4ND 1 H4V3 4 GOOD TH1NG GO1NG, BUT 3V3RYON3 3LS3 JUST W4ND3R3D OFF 4ND ST4RT3D DO1NG TH3IR OWN TH1NG." She protested. "TH3Y WOULDN'T 3V3N COM3 1N FOR TH3 CONFR3NC3 C4LL."

"So it's just you and Jane then?"

"Hiya Dave." A voice came from off-screen on Terezi's end.

"Hi John's hot mom." Dave replied. There was a split second of silence before Terezi giggled and Sollux snickered. Jane's head poked into the frame, blushing.

"Gosh darn it to heck Strider, stop calling me that!"

"Not a chance." Before they could continue, the upper right window flickered on, displaying "N.Y." and Jade on camera.

"Hi Dave!" She called enthusiastically.

"Holly shiit what iis that on your head?" Sollux stopped her, questioning the dog ear headband. Jade frowned, and Dave gently bumped Sollux on the shoulder.

"Shut up man, they whimsical and adorable. Whimsadorical."

"If you're gonna be a flirt..." Jane's voice came from off camera again. "At least make up your mind who in the sam hill you're flirting with!"

"BUT J4N3..." Terezi took on a mocking tone. "D1DN'T 1 T3LL YOU? D4V3'S 4 TOT4L PL4Y4!"

"Wait..." Jade stopped them. "What was going on before I came in?" A bead of sweat rolled down Dave's face, mercifully concealed by his shades.

"Ahem." Another, clearly synthesized and altered voice interrupted. The fourth panel was now on, displaying a black screen with a white, calligraphic "S"

"While this is amusing, my time is valuable as well as finite. Let's begin."

** Jade: Take notes.**


	5. Jade: Take Notes

**AN: Warning - the following chapter depicts underage drinking, much like Homestuck itself. If this bothers you somehow, skip everything after the horizontal line.**

**Thanks.**

** Jade: Take notes.**

With the arrival of John, Vriska, Nepeta, and lastly Roxy, the entire New York cell now sat in the living room chatting amongst themselves. Jade was not chatting, but looking down at the tabled PC in her lab which displayed the camera feeds.

"Everyone quiet, we're getting started!" She raised her voice to them, before making a flicking gesture from her tablet to the large TV screen, transferring the images. She made another quick gesture, as if her hand was holding a pen, and the sleek black gloves on her hands registered the motion, opening a word processor. Holding both hands up, she began to type in mid air above her tablet.

September 1, 2030

The gloves, it's sensors wirelessly linked to the operating system, allowed her to manipulate and control multiple devices in the household using hand gestures. The keyboard function worked well enough, but was nowhere near as nice as the holographic keyboard she used to have on her lunch tops. Sadly, those didn't exist in the "real" world. Mental note: invent that some day. As the conference call started rolling, she started taking notes: instructions they were given, ideas put forth, ectera. Elsewhere, she knew someone in each cell was doing the same.

"As of today..." Scratch began, "we have four months remaining until the release of the consumer model of the Reality Anchor. Once it has reached the market and achieved a particular level of market penetration, Skaianet will initiate Phase 3. At which point, we are fucked." He paused, as if to give emphasis to the fact that he, the great Doc Scratch, had just uttered such vulgarity. The kids were unfazed. "Completely and utterly, fucked."

"Have we figured out what Phase 3 IS yet?" John chimed in loudly.

"I think you meant to say..." Scratch returned in a condescending tone, "... have I figured it out? As currently, none of you have been contributing to that effort."

"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO TOLD US NOT TO DO ANYTHING YOU PRICK!" Karkat fired back with venom.

"This is true. I anticipated at least one of you would get impatient and violate this request to satisfy your own curiosity. However, as we are no longer living in a simulated reality, my predictions are no longer 100% infallible." Even with no face, the elaborate S on the screen oozed smugness. "To return to the original point, no, the detailed nature of Phase 3 is still unknown. I do know that it in someway involves the Memetic Suggestion Software, for which we were Skaianet's original guinea pigs. If I had to guess, I'd speculate they plan to spread the hardware as widely as possible before deploying it in some sort of mass brain washing attempt. Though in the long term, that is hardly an effective business model. I'd also speculate that this is why AH-4 included mind control as a prominent element in the simulation. Vriska." He added the her name disapprovingly. "Jane. Aranea." He added added the names of other ex-users of nefarious mind control.

"4R3N34 1SN'T H3R3." Terezi interrupted.

"Oh." Scratch paused, and there was an awkward moment of silence in which Jade assumed he was now looking at their cameras for the first time. "And Meenah?"

"Ditto." Jane replied.

"Equius?"

"H3 FOUND 4 JOB."

"The Noir Twins?" Terezi and Jane shrugged. "I am beginning to question my own judgment regarding cell assignments." Scratch became audibly flustered for the first time any of them could recall. "No matter, on to the task at hand.

"I placed the cells in three specific locations to wage a three-fronted battle." Scratch told them. "First, New York." He began to address Jade's party directly. "Now that you have sucsessfully established your cover and blended into the enemies' back yard, you will wage the physical aspect of the war. Infiltration and sabotage. Do anything you can to acquire information or proof about Phase 3 and the rest of their plan. With proof, we could publicly out the company and stop them out right, or at least slow them down. Pass what you can on to me and I'll see it gets to the right hands."

"Chicago. You will be dealing with the political and criminal front. Skaianet bankrolls politicians and lobbying groups to prevent any government interference. If you can uncover evidence of their money trail and dealings, we can force an investigation. Additionally, I've tracked a criminal connection to Skaianet as well. A crime syndicate, known as the "Shibas" are part of Chicago's criminal underworld, and I've recently learned that they were involved with us."

"Wait..." Jade stopped him. "What do you mean US?" Scratch paused for a moment, seemingly at a loss for words for the first time. "Scratch?"

"To put it gently... they, "acquired" us on Skaianet's behalf. Before we were re-written." Everyone in the various rooms with a "human upbringing" felt very uncomfortable. Karkat noticed the disturbed look on her face.

"JADE? ARE YOU OK?" He tried to pull her attention back.

"... uh... yeah..." She paused, squinting her eyes to shut out the bad thoughts.

"So... we weren't all kidnapped from different homes or something." Rose questioned her former mentor. "Before Skaianet messed with our memories we were..."

"Correct." Scratch interrupted. "Slaves. The Shibas are part of an international human trafficking ring and Skaianet... purchased all of you from them." He seemed to have grown impatient with attempt sensitive phrasing. Rose felt slightly nauseous. Jade stopped typing. John and Roxy looked at them worriedly. The trolls all looked rather confused. This topic... was not something that had ever come up in discussion... someone would have to explain the... implications, to them at some future time. "My point is..." Scratch broke the silence. "If we can find evidence of the tie between Skaianet and the Shibas, it will help turn the public against them and give us leverage with which to take our story public. We find them, we find proof about our pasts, and tools for our future." And then Scratch moved on, as everyone tried to put it out of their mind.

"Lastly, L.A. I've placed you in the entertainment nexus of the world. Guess what I'm about to tell you?"

"Media." Dave replied from the monitor, his poker face holding strong. Jade couldn't tell if he even cared about the bomb Scratch had just dropped on them.

"Correct. You are there to network, produce, or anything else you can think of to turn the public against Skaianet and the Reality Anchor. Perhaps you could find celebrity allies or make a scare-film turning the public against virtual reality. Lay the ground work so that when we get our hands on proof, the public will already have a bone to pick. There are eight of you there, and Skaianet has one of the largest P.R. Machines in the world. Have fun with that."

"Challenge acceptted mutthafucka." Sollux grinned and Dave nodded. Jade wasn't sure what they were thinking of, but she knew Dave would come up with something. Dave always surprised her.

* * *

From that point on, Scratch talked less and less as the four-sides began to bounce ideas at each other. Plans were hatched. Others were rejected. Cahoots was established. Over the next hour, Jade took fewer and fewer notes as her false ears dropped and she sank further and further into her chair. None of them ever predicted this to be easy, but with everything laid out in front of them now, it seemed more insurmountable than ever. How badly the deck was stacked. Twenty teenagers and a handful of grown-ups against one of the world's most powerful corporations.

"C'mon Jade..." Roxy leaned against the back of her chair. "Cheer up. Ish not so bad." Jade noted the drink in her hand.

"Roxy are you..."

"Yeah, but I'm juust having a couple. Moderasshun." Jade was unconvinced. "Like I said, we beat Lord English, rigt? This is nothin."

"We were kinda gods at the time." Jade replied. "Plus that was all just a story Andrew made up for us. This is real life!"

"Or is this just fantasy?!" John jumped in from across the room.

"Caught in a landslide..." Dave chimed in through the conference call, adding a touch of rap flavor to his line.

"No escape from reality." Scratch finished the lyric, which no one expected. "I will however, escape from this call, before everyone engages karaoke mode. Good luck everyone. I'll be in touch." Scratch's feed closed, leaving the three groups to their own devices. In place of his S-emblem, a text message appeared.

**Pose as a team. The world is real.**

**And we won't let them take it from us.**

As Jade looked around the room, she noticed that some of the others had drinks as well.

"Roxy, did you buy a whole bunch of booze?" Jade asked her.

"Kind of... I mean, I though we'd be celebratin the start of our revullusion, but then we got that heavy news so..." Roxy shrugged. "It's jus for one night."

"You sure that's a good idea?" Jade questioned.

"John and Kanaya: desughnated sober peoples." Roxy gestured at them, who were both clearly drinking water. Roxy saw the hesitation on Jade's face, before holding a drink out for her. "sup to you." She told her. Jade hesitantly reached out and took it from her. She needed to get her head free from Scratch's revelation earlier. Just this one night.


	6. Intermission 1

** Intermission 1**

Several blocks away from the New York cell's apartment, Dr. Richard Yun and Dr. Ozmand Brinner boarded an elevator and began to ascend. Yun, a clean shaven man in his late 20s with short black hair, glanced at his silver wrist watch absently midst the awkward silence. Oz, an older gentleman in his late 40s, with brown-grey hair, a modest beard, and thick circular spectacles, didn't look him in the eye when he finally spoke.

"So... how was Disneyland?" He grinned.

"Pretty nice actually." Yun replied. "At least until my passport and accounts got revoked to come back." Yun shot Oz a dirty look. "You know, it's called a Burn NOTICE because someone tells you when it happens."

"Well, not much to be done about that now." Oz was still smiling sarcastically. Yun glared at him... he could tell Ozmand had been involved in the decision to cut him off and leave him stranded in France. And he enjoyed it.

"The real question is... why did the company change their mind and bring me back?" Yun questioned as the elevator ground to a stop at one of the uppermost levels of Skaianet's skyscraper.

"1.5." Oz told him as he led him out of the elevator.

* * *

A short ways down the hallway, Oz led him into a conference room. Ozmand gently pushed him inside the dark room, and then stood framed in the doorway, blocking the only source of light from the hall. As his eyes adjusted, he realized that it wasn't the only light... five dim monitors lined the wall of the room. He could make out figures there, but they were only silhouettes. Dark room, with shadow figures on dim monitors. He couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the cliché. He remembered how AH-4 had given the trolls an absurd quirk of giving long and elaborate names to movies. If he was to apply that here, he would call them "The Council of Vague Omnipotence Who Sit In Poorly Lit Rooms While Planning To Take Over The World". If he was a braver man, he would have called them that to their non-faces. He was not a brave man. He remained silent as a very different sort of conference call played out, with people who he did not know, but who could either make his fortune or make him disappear... depending on if he made them happy.

"Richard Yun." The first of the voices, an older sounding man, addressed him. "The unfortunate outcome of Phase 1 under your leadership has had and will continue to have disastrous implications for the entire program." He shamed him.

"However, due to complications arising in Phase 2, as a result of this clusterfuck..." Another told him, this one a stern female voice. "We are amending the plan, and require your expertise and cooperation. You are receiving an UNDESERVED second chance." She emphasized. "Do not disappoint us." Yun nodded grimly.

"So." Yun spoke after a few seconds of silence, when he was confident none of the monitors were about to begin speaking. "What is Phase 1.5?"

"Based on data accumulated in Phase 1, we have developed AH-5, purging it of the flaws that allowed it to go rogue on your watch. While it is not as... creative... it can still perform the necessary functions to replicate the original experiment."

"Why re-do the Phase 1 experiments? Was the data bad or something?" Yun inquired.

"On the 41st floor, you'll find the 1.5 lab." One of the monitors told him, disregarding his question. "We have acquired 12 additional subjects for this project. All the hardware and software required is already in place. Unlike the last time, where AH-4 was left to make it's own decisions, you will be guiding AH-5 with very specific instructions."

"But why?" Yun asked. "Tell me that or I won't be able to do this right this time."

"Your original subjects." Ozmand spoke to him from the door frame. "When AH-4 performed his exodus, they all escaped. They're out here, in the world, and we're pretty sure AH-4 set them against us on the way out the door. They are an unknown variable, and if they act against us the whole Sburb project is threatened."

"So to take them down..." A fourth voice, this one female, but younger, came from another monitor. "We're going to play AH-4's own card against him. You will be using the MMS to create new subjects. To hunt them down." Yun understood. AH-4 had made these kids smart, tough, and tenacious. They wanted him to do the same thing, but without the free will. The Council of Vague Omnipotence wanted assassin's to take out the Phase 1 subjects. And he was to create them.

"We launch in four months Yun." The final council member spoke. "And by launch day, I want all of AH-4's subjects dead. Or you are burned again... and this time to someplace far less comfortable than Paris..."

** Karkat: Wake Up.**


	7. Karkat: Wake Up

**AN: Rating bumped to M due to some increasingly questionable content from here on out. Lots of "mature" stuff to follow, but no actual lemon planned. Just looked ahead at my outline and things are going different from my original plan.**

**Karkat: Wake Up.**

Karkat woke up in a bed. This was unusual to him. When the four bedrooms of their apartment suite got divvied up, he'd drawn the short straw and become proud resident of "THE FUCKING COUCH". His head hurt a bit, and he could still smell and taste lingering alcohol on his breath. He should have fucking known better... maybe he'd been thinking the real world would be different than in the simulation or something. The previous evening was a total blur. But yeah... back to waking up in a bed. Which was way too warm for him alone.

Oh fuck, this was someone's bed! He thought.

Oh fuck, where are my clothes!? He thought.

OH FUCK, WHO THE FUCK ELSE IS IN THIS BED!? He thought.

* * *

***knock knock knock**

"EGBERT!" Karkat knocked on one of the bedroom doors after he'd snuck out of the bed and found his clothes. There was no response, so he started knocking again. "EGBERT YOU FUCKING TOOL GET OUT HERE!" He hissed angrily without raising his voice too high.

"hold on..." Came a muttered reply from the other room. After a moment, the door opened to John, who was wearing a pair of grey shorts and in the process of pulling on a black t-shirt. "what?"

"EGBERT, DID YOU DRINK LAST NIGHT?" Karkat demanded. "DO YOU REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED?"

"what happened?" John squinted and yawned. He had no clue what he was talking about.

"ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!"

"look, I didn't drink... but I kinda went to bed before everything, er... winded down." He shrugged. Karkat took two steps to the right to get a visual of the inside of John's room. There was a clearly visible person sized lump in the sheets.

"OH OF FUCKING COURSE!" Karkat sneered. "YOU DIDN'T SEE WHAT HAPPENED, BECAUSE YOU TWO WENT OFF INTO YOUR OWN LITTLE WORLD FOR SOME PAILING!"

"Fuck you Karkat!" Came a sleepy, half-hearted shout from under the sheets. "and stop fucking calling it that... it's not even a word here... you use the human word enough..." Vriska mumbled some other insult neither of them could make out before quieting again.

"Karkat, what's wrong with you? Why are you freaking out?" John asked impatiently. Karkat closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. Yes, he'd woken John up to get advice, but figuring out how to phrase this was still awkward.

"SO... UH... WHATEVER HAPPENED LAST NIGHT..."

"yeah?"

"I JUST..." John looked impatiently, gesturing for him to spit it out. "WOKE UP IN BED WITH NEPETA." He hesitated. "AND JADE."

***wham**

John's eyes bulged slightly and his brow furled a moment before his fist connected with Karkat's cheek, knocking him against the wall opposite his door.

"what the fuck man?!" John shouted. "That's my sister!" He paused. "Kind of." He paused again. "OK, not really, but still!" The human children's relationships to each other via ectobiology had been somewhat tenuous before, but the revelation of the simulation had resulted in none of them having legitimate biological ties. Still, both John and Jade as well as Dave and Rose had spent "years" living as siblings inside the simulation, and had agreed to continue treating each other as such here in the real world. Karkat's yelp of pain and John's outburst had been enough to rouse Vriska's curiosity, her head peeked out from under the sheets.

"Ooooooooh... are you boys fighting?" She squinted as she reached for her glasses.

"Um..." John hesitated. "Kind of..."

"Can you hit em again? I wasn't looking." She smiled, and John just stood there awkwardly in response. "Please?"

"Karkat." A stern and composed voice entered the conversation. Everyone saw Kanaya standing at the threshold between the living room and bedroom hallway. "A Word Or Two With You Regarding The Nature Of Tact. Now." She grabbed Karkat by the shirt collar and pulled him stumbling into the living room.

"Awwwwwwww, miss fussy fangs strikes again." Vriska sighed. John still stood in the door way, feeling awkward. "Joooooooohn... why don't you come 8ack to 8ed for a 8it..." She pulled the covers aside next to her, prompting John to step back inside and shut the door.

* * *

"Ok, Rule Number One Of Tact." Kanaya waved a finger in Karkat's face as he sat at the kitchen table, holding an sealed cold soda can to his face where John had bopped him one. "The Music Video 'I Just Had Sex' Is Not Instructional. To Discuss Such Matters Without The Consent Of Your Partner Is Rude And Hurtful." She sighed. "Second Of All, And I Assumed This Much Would Go Without Saying, All Of The Above, Especially With Her Brother. Thirdly..."

"KANAYA PLEASE..." Karkat interrupted her. "I JUST WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT! HOW THE FUCK DID THIS HAPPEN?!"

"So You Don't Remember Anything That Happened Last Night?" Kanaya asked.

"NO. AND YOU AND JOHN WEREN'T DRINKING, SO ONE OF YOU HAS TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED! BUT HE AND VRISKA WERE TOO BUSY TO PAY ATTENTION."

"They've Got A Fairly Long Standing Relationship Going, You Can't Fault Them For Absconding To Privacy..."

"SO WHAT DID YOU SEE?"

"Well... Uh..." Kanaya hesitated. "Let Me Preface This Statement By Saying That It's Nothing To Be Embarassed About Per Say... I Mean We Are All Adults Here, At Least In The Mental Sense, And Human Society Has Different Cultural Mores Regarding..."

"I HAVE SEEN PLENTY OF THE HUMAN MOVIES NOW. I KNOW, GET ON WITH IT."

"I Know That You Know, That Was Just As Much For Your Benefit As Mine..." Kanaya was blushing a bit. She cleared her throat before continuing. "So After A Few Drinks You And Jade Started To Hit It Off A Bit... You Changed Your Tune About Her False Dog Ears And Declared Them To Be Cute. Nepeta Overheard This And I Saw Her Go Back To Her And Roxy's Room. I Was Briefly Distracted, But She Came Back Wearing Her Cat Ears And Saw You And Jade Kissing." She recounted at a hurried pace. "Naturally This Upset Her... And It Seemed Like She And Jade We're Going To Fight, But Roxy Swooped In And Auspisticized. She Took Them To Another Room To Talk It Out Until They Calmed Down... And Then Towards The End Of The Night I Saw Nepeta Lead You Into Jade's Room. And That's All I Know."

"SO... IT'S ROXY'S FAULT."

"It's No One's Fault..."

"ROXY GOT US DRUNK, AND MAYBE SHE EVEN PLANTED THE FUCKING IDEA IN THEIR DRUNK HEADS, BECAUSE THERE'S NO FUCKING WAY EITHER OF THEM..." He cut himself off before blurting out the things he was thinking.

"She Didn't Make Anyone Drink." Kanaya corrected. "I Don't Know What They Talked About, But They Were Definitely Civil With Each Other After Roxy Talked Them Down."

"OH GOD ALL THIS IS GONNA BE SO FUCKING AWKWARD... WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO WHEN THEY WAKE UP?"

"Talk About It." Kanaya suggested... but more with the tone of an order. "If Any Bad Feelings Came Out Of This, Don't Let Them Fester." Kanaya stood up. "And Further, Perhaps All Three Of You Should Avoid The Alcohol From Here On Out."

"YEAH..." Karkat muttered. "I'M GONNA... TAKE A WALK..." He sighed with dread. He headed out the apartment entrance. He returned a few moments later, muttering about forgetting his shoes, forcing Kanaya to crack a smile as he grumpily pulled them on. She'd decided she'd better wake up Rose and fill her in, in case she needed some help. This was a little too big for her to auspistice alone.

Karkat stepped down onto the street and started a long walk on a couple block loop, the busy streets of Manhattan at 10 AM distracting from his inner turmoil. He didn't want to sort these emotions out right now. He went years not sorting this shit out during the session, why start now? Even though you'd think it would be easier with 75% of the matrix of romance stripped away as a human. Well... there was one point in the past he thought he'd had it sorted out. Even if his life had been under AI control at the time, he'd been genuinely... happy... with those emotions. His first experience with red relationships...

**Terezi: Be Hardboiled.**


End file.
